Cops: 2 dead, 2 wounded in police-involved shooting in Calumet City

Two men were shot to death and two others wounded following a dispute that started in a Calumet City nightclub early Saturday and ended with gunfire outside, police said.

Family members said they believe one man shot to death is Archie Lee Chambers Jr., 20, of the 3100 block of West 84th Street in Chicago, who a witness told WGN-TV had been shooting in the air before being shot by police.

Family members said Chambers, a student at Kennedy-King College and graduate of Chicago Vocational High School, was the youngest of six children.

Friends told Chambers’ sister, Arshanette Chambers, 21, that Chambers and other friends had been at a car club party at What’s Up about 1:30 a.m., when a fight started inside the club and someone began shooting outside the club, killing Chambers' friend and bringing Chambers outside.

Police arrived on the scene about 1:45 a.m. and when officers arrived, “there were two people already down,” Calumet City Police Chief Edward Gilmore told WGN-TV.

Police "did engage the shooter," Gilmore said, but the chief did not say that Chambers was the one who had shot the others. White and Chambers were not shot by the police, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

Witnesses said there were many shots fired in the parking lot of the club, and there were dozens of evidence tags in the parking lot Saturday, marking where shell casings from the gunfire had fallen.

A woman was taken to Franciscan St. Margaret Health in Hammond with a gunshot wound to her leg, and her condition had been stabilized, Gilmore said.

Another man was shot multiple times and taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was in serious condition, Gilmore told WGN-TV.

It was unclear whether the wounded man might be a suspect in the shootings, or just a victim of the shootings. Calumet City Police did not return phone calls for clarification Saturday afternoon.

Friends told Arshanette Chambers that her brother did wield a gun after his friend had been shot dead, but that he had thrown the gun down and was hopping over a gate when he was shot, she said in a telephone interview.

A witness told WGN-TV that Chambers had been shooting in the air before he was shot.

State Police are investigating the shooting because of police involvement, a spokeswoman said.

Gilmore said the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force also is investigating

Arshanette and Archie Chambers’ mother, Anthanette Marshbanks, 49, with whom Archie Chambers lived, said they found out through friends of Chambers’ that something might have happened at the club.

Anthanette Marshbanks first realized something might have happened when she woke up this morning and her son's bedroom door was open. She couldn't reach him, and his car wasn't home.

When she reached a friend of his, she was told to call Calumet City police.

"Nobody had any information," Marshbanks said.

Finally, after going to the police station, Marshbanks went to the club, and saw, from a distance, a body that looked like her son, lying in a parking lot of a nearby apartment complex, uncovered.

"I got there at 3 p.m., and he was lying on the ground, with no body bag, nothing covering" his body, Arshanette Chambers said.

"No authority has stepped up to tell me that my child is dead," Marshbanks said.

Arshanette Chambers said her brother, who was trained as a diesel mechanic at Chicago Vocational Career Academy and graduated from the high school in 2010, was always someone who would befriend those at school who had difficulty fitting in.

"I've seen people at their lowest, and he'd talk to them, and make them laugh," trying to cheer them up, his sister said.